Search titans talk futures

MS-Watch | at | by Mike

There's more to search than devising the perfect algorithm. Two of the newer kids on the search block - Microsoft and Amazon's A9 subsidiary - shared their visions for the future of search during their Thursday keynote addresses at the World Wide Web conference here.

Neither executive was willing to discuss near-term products or strategies. Microsoft is known to be prepping new search technologies that are expected to allow users to search seamlessly across their local machines, corporate networks and the Internet. The new MSN Search part of the equation is expected to debut later this year or early next. A first version of the WinFS file-system subsystem will be integrated into Longhorn when it ships in 2006+. And A9 recently unveiled a beta version of a new search site that builds on top of Google.